If you start to feel panicky close yours eye and count your breathing like this
on the first inhale -1
first exhale -2
2nd inhale - 3
2nd exhale - 4
etc, do it for as long as it takes until you're relaxed and try to only consentrate on that.
hope this helps.

I agree with JustPernicious, but would add that each of those breaths should be long ones, both in and out, and your thoughts should be on your breathing.
(I'm sorry, JustPernicious, for contradicting you, but I've got to communicate what I've found to work.)

I've suffered from GAD since I was 14 and they went away when I was 22 and came back when I was 39. I'm 45 now and I've had horrible episodes and I probably have more ER visits and EKGs than real heart patients.

When they happen while driving, I've learned to do deep breathing exercises or I call my husband who can talk me down from a panic. Try to have a "safe" person in your life who can talk you through an episode if the deep breathing doesn't help.

In the house, I have a "safe" place where I go and I listen to meditation music. My favorite place in the house is my livingroom couch and I can go there in the middle of the night and I have a CD I really like that calms me.

I'm on Cymbalta and I have Temazapam to sleep if I have trouble. The Cymbalta has worked wonders for me. I kept trying to go off the meds but then like 3-6 months after the meds, the anxiety would come back with a vengence.

I've suffered from GAD since I was 14 and they went away when I was 22 and came back when I was 39. I'm 45 now and I've had horrible episodes and I probably have more ER visits and EKGs than real heart patients.

When they happen while driving, I've learned to do deep breathing exercises or I call my husband who can talk me down from a panic. Try to have a "safe" person in your life who can talk you through an episode if the deep breathing doesn't help.

In the house, I have a "safe" place where I go and I listen to meditation music. My favorite place in the house is my livingroom couch and I can go there in the middle of the night and I have a CD I really like that calms me.

I'm on Cymbalta and I have Temazapam to sleep if I have trouble. The Cymbalta has worked wonders for me. I kept trying to go off the meds but then like 3-6 months after the meds, the anxiety would come back with a vengence.

Hope some of this helps.

Chaeya

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Dear Chaeya,
As a fellow GAD sufferer, I think I know what you're going through, at lease some of it. It helps if you can struggle to produce another, external personality, that shields you from the outside world. It can seriously lower the tension within you. If the real you is terribly theatened by social situations, you might try to take on a tougher personality in response to your threat. Remember, the time you're asked to share is relatively small so it must be less of a threat. What to do when the feeling comes on unexeceptaly, is deep breathing, an alcoholic drink, connecting with some of the people you know and leaving early.

Dear Chaeya,
As a fellow GAD sufferer, I think I know what you're going through, at lease some of it. It helps if you can struggle to produce another, external personality, that shields you from the outside world. It can seriously lower the tension within you. If the real you is terribly theatened by social situations, you might try to take on a tougher personality in response to your threat. Remember, the time you're asked to share is relatively small so it must be less of a threat. What to do when the feeling comes on unexeceptaly, is deep breathing, an alcoholic drink, connecting with some of the people you know and leaving early.

Take care,

Zola

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When my social phobia starts to immobilize me I use tricks like pretending the person I feel nervous over is actually one of my close friends. I know this is a temporary break from reality but for me it works- I can actually converse with them with far less stuttering and sweat saturating my clothing.

Another trick I use when I approach a group of people and my brain is screaming at me that I am an insignificant, useless, bottom-feeding schmuck unworthy of being urinated on even if I were on fire is to pretend I am some celebrity who is well liked and a socially adept schmoozer. Jay Leno is a favorite and I have often been able to speak to a group of people who made me nervous without vomiting on their shoes-by using this trick.

Well, its caused me to fail a course with work. i passed the written it was just the practical. i was left sitting in a room for 6 hours and the anxiety buit up so much it resulted in me feeling like i couldnt get out of that room, i felt trapped, i started to panic sweat dripping from me and i was in tears. now work arent happy that i fled the exam.... :sad: